Photographer's Note

Mian Shan or MianShan is a fantastic Buddhist and Taoist mountain with temples literally built on the cliff face with hundreds of hidden caves, dating back 2500 years Mian Shan is about 200 km south of TaiYuan the provincial capital of ShanXi (see detail of ShanXi map ). The most famous of all the Taoist temple is the DaLuo Gong 大 罗 宫 (or the Temple of All Embracing Heaven).

DaLuo Gong houses a great number of old Taoist texts, including the wooden engravings of Dao De Jing. This Taoist classic was written by the father of Taoism, LaoZi and therefore, Mian Shan is attracting more and more Taoist followers and visitors because of it.

For the Buddhist there is the BaoFu Temple built inside the so called BaoFu Cave, the cave itself is shaped like the "two hands of Buddha holding onto his stomach" and the "stomach" space is so large that it can hold thousands of people plus the temples 200 over rooms.